Without in-depth content, B2B prospects have no collateral resources to pass along to decision makers - so brands should be creating quality content no matter their industry.

A thorough content marketing campaign isn’t something that should be left to B2Cs. There’s ample evidence that appealing to individual consumers with high-quality content is a great way to improve overall brand awareness and impressions across the board, Brafton recently reported. However, good content is also essential within B2B relationships themselves.

According to a study by Regalix, B2B marketers have identified content marketing as a top priority for their branding efforts for the rest of the year. In fact, quality content creation surpassed traditional web marketing tactics, such as metatag and keyword research, as a major concern. Around 73 percent report they’re creating original content, compared to 68 percent that are optimizing meta tags. Content marketing has finally come into its own for B2Bs and can no longer be marginalized in favor of less engaging strategies that are more familiar.

B2B marketing goes holistic

In fact, engagement and customer experience are growing in importance for business-to-business relationships. Regalix also found that 65 percent of B2B marketers consider blogging important to their branding efforts in 2014, 54 percent cite social media integration as a top priority and 42 percent are focusing on responsive design. B2Bs are now vetting their partners through all of these channels, whereas the field used to be dominated by face-to-face meetings or in-person networking.

Part of this shift may be due to an overall decline in ad effectiveness. An infographic by Circle Studio shows that there’s a shift taking place in B2B decision makers’ thought processes – 80 percent of them prefer to receive commercial information from articles and written resources, rather than media they identify as advertisements. They don’t want to be sold – they want to be educated. Now, it’s more important than ever before to create in-depth and quality content to sway prospects’ thinking.

As Brafton reported, Google AdWords may be a good investment, but they’re more valuable for raising brand awareness than actually driving clicks. While traffic indicates a robust web presence, it doesn’t guarantee results. There must also be engagement and interest as a result of good content. No matter whether brands operate in the B2B or B2C sphere, they should be creating content that prospects – and the rest of their organizations – want to read.

Alex Butzbach is a Marketing Writer at Brafton. He studied Communications at Boston College, and after a brief stint teaching English in Japan, he entered the world of content marketing. When he isn't writing and researching, he can be found on a bike somewhere in Metro Boston.